 |
| I feel your pain Ralphie! |
A mentor of mine advised me that the best way to attack reality is to stare it in the face and say, "let's go!" Well, much easier said than done. Reality does not fight fair! Those of us that have returned from an relaxing vacation are all too familiar with this fact. Reality will zap your motivation with a grey sky and a chill in the air. Making the 1st night back your own bed extra special cozy and almost impossible to leave. Reality will continue to slap you around as your mind races while thinking about your long list of to-dos ... unpack an overstuffed suitcase, do laundry, walk the dog, pay bills, Christmas shopping, opening snail mail, answering email and the list goes on and on. No, I think a better idea is pulling the covers over my head and dream of the waves of Cancun which I was just swimming in yesterday. Here, I brought back a short video for daydreaming purposes. Enjoy!
Wait just a minute! Coffee! Yes! YES! I then force myself to haul my tail out of bed and drink the 1st cup of home brewed coffee!! Oh, and just think of the 1st shower at home with all your own shampoo, soap and the perfect amount of water pressure. Oh yeah! Reality you have been beat and now I am laughing at you over a fresh, hot cup of Hazelnut flavored coffee.
Like most of you, opening my inbox is the reality check I most dred. Especially after being fortunate enough to completely ignore email during my vacation. If you haven't done this yourself I highly recommend trying it. You will be glad you did.
Well, the time has come to open the ol' inbox. Sitting in front of my laptop I let out a sigh and open my email account like Will Farrell testing Jack in the Boxes in the movie ELF (also a hilarious Christmas movie). My stomach tightened as I watched hundred of emails fill my inbox like an avalanche. Suddenly I felt overwhelmed. Tackling this task will take all day and possibly tomorrow if I don't handle this systematically.
First, I had to promise myself not open anything! It's time to GET ORGANIZED! I created 3 temporary files for business, family and friends. Now, shove your emails in the appropriate files. I kept reminding myself to resist the temptation of opening mail because I can easily get bogged down and lose focus.
Next, dump the junk! Now is a perfect time time to delete, unsubscribe and/or post spam notices for all the sources that pollute my inbox. Good riddance! Especially you AARP. I keep asking you to refine your target. I'm far from retirement age, dang!
All right, I'm getting closer to crack open the 1st email. Before that I will create 2 sub folders inside my business folder; important and not so important. Depending on who sent the mail and the subject line it's easy to determine which ones will be viewed first. As a job seeker this is particularly important to me. Timing is crucial when finding my next dream job. I know full well it's not going to fall into my lap.
Here I go clicking away at a feverish pace. Thirty minutes fly by and I've made a huge dent. I keep my responses succint and take breaks only to fill my coffee cup, return important phone calls and visit the bathroom. My eye is on the prize and the prize is to addressed all professional and personal emails that surfaced while on my vacation.
Before long I find myself opening the contents of my last folder, "friends." There are a few jokes clean and otherwise. Also, I was please to open updates on my beloved GSU Eagles winning a spot in FCS semi-finals.
What's this? Could it be? YES! I AM FINISHED! Wooohooo! Two short hours and 428 emails later and I'm patting myself on the back. A huge victory after tasting sour medicine feed to me by the harsh reality of returning from vacation. I rewarded myself with the sweet taste of success by picking up lunch from my favorite neighborhood restaurant Hankook Taqueira. Home Sweet Home!
No comments:
Post a Comment